Govt starts registering private schools

The District Education Authority has started working on registering the private schools in the district and issued notices to 167 private schools in the Rawalpindi tehsil as part of the first phase of the project.

A senior official of the education authority told Dawn that there are more than 1,500 unregistered private schools in Rawalpindi.

He said the registration process will be conducted in phases and that in the first phase, the authority will register private schools in six other tehsils including Gujar Khan, Taxila, Murree, Kallar Syedan, Kotli Sattian and Kahuta.

More than 60pc of the private schools have not been registered with the District Education Authority in Rawalpindi, meaning the government has not been able to implement its policies in these schools, including security, fee structure and the quality of education.

A private school owner said there are two reasons for lack of interest in registering schools. He said there is no procedure for a member of the registration committee or the education department to visit schools and that there is no data collection system.

A senior official said school owners and managers are not aware of the importance of registering their schools.

“They fear the government will impose taxes if their schools are registered,” he said.

He added when schools are not registered, their fee structure, quality of education, teachers’ salary, hygiene conditions and other facilities are not checked by the government.

On the other hand, Private Schools and Colleges Owners’ Association President Malik Abrar said private schools were interested in getting registered by the education authority makes the process difficult and slow.

He said more than 300 applications are pending with the education authority but officials were not processing them on time. He said inspections teams have also not been formed for registering schools. He added that the principals of government schools are appointed for keeping a check on private schools but they do not have time to conduct proper inspections as they visit 20 schools a month.

FJWU seminar on media psychology

Fatima Jinnah Women University’s (FJWU) Department of Communications and Media Studies and Soch organised a seminar on Media Psychology Seminar for students on Thursday.

The purpose of the seminar was to create awareness about media psychology in this much-needed field of Media and Communication Sciences.

Soch head and clinical psychologist Tahira Javaid talked about why organisational impression management is needed and how to create meaningful impressions on people. She also talked about impression management strategies and techniques.

Founder Soch Psychological Services Salman Tahir talked about the effect of media on people.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2018